314 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884, 



tip from beyond the bend,* while a fourth is precisely of the arctic type 

 with a very large number of strands.t 



Several of these bows are made of oak, evidently barrel-staves ob- 

 tained from white men, but are, notwithstanding, provided with a pow- 

 erful backing, which shows how inseparably this invention, in its origin 

 applicable only to inelastic wood, has become connected with the idea 

 of a bow in the mind of the maker. 



Comparing what I have said of the geographical distribution of these 

 types of bow with the divisions of the Eskimos of the Northwest adopted 

 by Mr. Dall,J it will be seen that of the Western Mackenzie Innuit (his 

 first great division) the Kopagmut {Kupu'nmeun of the Point Barrow ' 

 natives) and probably the Kangnialigmut [Kunmu' (Vim of the same 

 people, an almost unknown tribe, concerning whom there appears to be 

 no reliable information), with probably all the Western Innuit except 

 the Chuklukmut, Kikhto'gamut, and Mahlemut, use the pure arctic 

 type. The Chuklukmut and Kikhto'gamut use the western type, with 

 some admixture of the arctic. The Mahlemut and Unaligmut (the 

 northernmost tribe of Fishing Innuit) use the arctic and the southern 

 type and intermediate forms, while the remainder of the Fishing Innuit 

 use the pure southern type. 



Assuming, as is highly probable, that all the branches of the Eskimo 

 race started with the primitive form of bow above described, the in- 

 habitants of the well-wooded shores of Bering Sea and the Gulf of 

 Alaska, who have a plentiful supply of fresh living spruce, have im- 

 j)roved on this type chiefly by lengthening and strengthening the wood 

 of the bow and collecting the loose strands into a compact round cable, 

 which is occasionally made somewhat thicker across the middle than 

 towards the ends. 



Those who live on the treeless shores of the Arctic Ocean are forced 

 to depend on comparatively scarce dead and brittle drift-wood, and have _ 

 been obliged to devote their attention to the improvement of the sinew I 

 backing in order to increase the efficiency of the weapon. The conse- 

 quence has been the development of the exceedingly complicated and 

 perfect form above described. This is probably the ultimate step in 

 the development of the sinew-backed bow. Not only is it difficult to 

 imagine making a more perfect weapon from the materials, but atten- 

 tion will no longer be paid to possible improvements in a weapon which 

 is rapidly passing into disuse and becoming superseded by fire-arms. i 



The people of Saint Lawrence Island, out of the direct line of com- \ 

 munication between the two continents and also dependent on drift- 

 wood, have developed the bow in a different way from all the rest. • 



* A peculiar clove-hitch (Fig. 25) occurs at each end of this bow. ' 



tThis bow (No. 2507) has a reversed "soldier's hitch" in the seizing (Fig. 26) in 

 which the end passes under the standing part and over the turns. 

 \ Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. i, p. 23 



